Relight a Candle with Smoke

Watch a flame jump down a smoke trail and relight a candle on its own.

 

Materials you'll need

• taper candle (a ghost candle makes it extra spooky)
• sturdy candle holder
• long-reach lighter or long matches
• a heat-safe table away from curtains, paper, and anything else that can catch
• an adult to handle all the fire

 

Step-by-step tutorial

Step 1: Grab a candle and set it firmly in a holder on a heat-safe surface. Clear the space around it and turn off any fans — a still room is what makes this trick work.

Step 2: Have an adult light the candle with a long-reach lighter. Let it burn for about a minute so the wick gets good and hot.

Step 3: Blow the candle out with one short puff, then look closely at the wick. A thin white trail should rise straight up.

Step 4: Right away, have the adult hold the lighter flame into that trail, a few inches above the wick. Don't touch the flame to the wick itself — the smoke is doing the work.

Step 5: Watch the flame race down the trail and relight the candle. If nothing happens, the trail faded too fast, so light it again and try a shorter wait.

Learn more

Here's the secret: a candle flame isn't burning the solid wax at all. The heat melts the wax, the wick pulls the liquid up like a straw (a trick called capillary action), and the flame turns it into a hot gas. That gas is what's actually burning. When you blow the candle out, the wick stays hot for a few seconds and keeps making the gas, which cools into the white trail you can see. Touch a flame to the trail and all that wax vapor catches at once, carrying the fire straight down to the wick.

Not up for open flames at home, but still want something Halloween-themed? Spooky Halloween Science comes with everything kids need to mix a foaming, color-changing reaction themselves, already measured and ready.